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HR Consultant

Julia Durbin

With 17 years’ experience working with executive teams and leading the people agenda as HR Director in the fashion retail, department store and beauty sectors I have worked with companies including Shiseido, Jacques Vert, Aurora Fashions and Debenhams as well as on an independent consultancy basis.

I pride myself on being commercial and agile, adept in working in small private equity backed and privately owned businesses as well as larger corporate environments. As a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD I bring big-picture thinking as well as hands-on operational excellence and experience of leading challenging business scenarios. My style is collaborative and energetic with a coaching approach.

Particular skills developed during my career are in organisation design and transformation, talent acquisition at all levels as well as building Lead Teams, change management, team engagement and culture development, leading and implementing the DEI agenda, succession management and training and development planning and execution.

I am passionate about working with organisations to enable business success through their people.

Q. What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done?

A. I inadvertently got whisked away riding bareback on a runaway horse through a coffee plantation in the Dominican Republic and once rescued, danced the night away in a straw hut with (unbeknown to me until I saw the photos) a tarantula dangling overhead!

Q. Who or what makes you laugh?

A. Winnie my 2 year old cocker spaniel and Gogglebox.

What our clients are saying

  • “

    SYLO Beyond HR has provided invaluable support to WheelPower. Their practical, responsive approach has helped us modernise our systems, while also strengthening our thinking at Board level. They understand the realities of the charity sector and bring both expertise and empathy to their work

    ”

    Martin McElhatton, CEO, WheelPower

  • “

    SYLO Beyond HR delivered a series of seven Manager Skills sessions for our managers between October 2024 and early 2025, delivered through a blend of face‑to‑face and online workshops.

    The programme covered essential topics for our managers, including Being a Role Model, Communication Skills (Parts 1 & 2), Empowering Others, Basics of HR, Techniques for Handling Difficult Situations, and Giving and Receiving Feedback.

    The training was practical, engaging, and tailored to our organisation, while also being delivered a in a human way. Our managers particularly valued the real‑world examples, the safe space created for discussion, and the actionable tools they could use immediately in their roles.

    The skills sessions have had a positive impact in how our managers communicate, set expectations, and handle challenging situations with greater confidence.

    SYLO’s facilitators were knowledgeable, supportive, and highly engaging throughout the programme. We would happily recommend SYLO Beyond HR to any organisation looking to strengthen their management capability.

     

    ”

    Petrova Caldecourt, Partner, For and on behalf of Lightfoot Solicitors

  • “

    We have been using Breathe over the last term to track our staff holidays. This is a great system as it highlights different cohorts of staff and when is free for others to book on the calendar. This has supported our ratio requirements and helped us to track holiday entitlements.

    We like the system so much that we have extended it to using the staffing schedules to log staff attendance and hours needed to be processed for payroll. Sharon has been so helpful in helping us set up different employees work patterns and it has been really effective for our nursery needs.

     

    ”

    Phillipa Arnold – Operations Manager. Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries – Cambridge Franchise

  • “

    As always, SYLO delivered a thoughtful and insightful session and I enjoyed hearing their thoughts on valuing difference in the workplace. It has helped me to be able to think about how I can encourage the people I work with to consider how effective their inclusive policies and practices are.

    ”

    Karen Tate – Employee Relations Lead MPDN

  • “

    ​I found working with SYLO incredibly comfortable.  They helped me to define the real issues and then guided me through figuring out a solution. This resulted in a huge shift in the workload I was carrying to manageable levels, greater and welcomed empowerment for the talent in my team, and a manager (mine) who was fully up to speed on what was actually going on.

    ”

    Georgina Carey, Senior Manager – Transport For London

Get in touch

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